Posted on Jun 17, 2022
In ‘The Movement Made Us,’ a father and son trace the lasting impact of civil rights activism
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For nearly 50 years, civil rights activist David Dennis Sr. rarely spoke about his work in the 1960s as a member of Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE.
Dennis Sr. was instrumental in helping to desegregate parts of the South during the height of the movement. But it wasn’t until his son, journalist David Dennis Jr., started asking questions, that the extraordinary stories of resilience and brutality were revealed.
Through the process of writing their new book, “The Movement Made Us,” Dennis Sr. also came to understand how the trauma he endured as an activist impacted his son.
“I think the most painful thing is to begin to realize the kind of pain that I brought into my home, my family,” Dennis Sr. says. “[My son] writing this book and raising a lot of questions and things and beginning to help cause me to have to address things and see things that I had totally wiped out of my head.”
Dennis Sr. was instrumental in helping to desegregate parts of the South during the height of the movement. But it wasn’t until his son, journalist David Dennis Jr., started asking questions, that the extraordinary stories of resilience and brutality were revealed.
Through the process of writing their new book, “The Movement Made Us,” Dennis Sr. also came to understand how the trauma he endured as an activist impacted his son.
“I think the most painful thing is to begin to realize the kind of pain that I brought into my home, my family,” Dennis Sr. says. “[My son] writing this book and raising a lot of questions and things and beginning to help cause me to have to address things and see things that I had totally wiped out of my head.”
In ‘The Movement Made Us,’ a father and son trace the lasting impact of civil rights activism
Posted from wbur.org
Rights
Equality
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American History
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Dennis Jr. grew up hearing these episodic tales about his father, but he says he wasn’t fully aware of what his father went through until writing this book. He says these stories were often told with humor.
“They were just sort of told in this sort of this comedic sort of hint to it of like these men and women who had survived and were telling these survival tales with laughter,” Dennis Jr. says. “And it wasn’t until I talked to dad … that I learned that these were really sometimes gruesome, always dangerous stories that involved a lot of damage.”
..."Dennis Jr. grew up hearing these episodic tales about his father, but he says he wasn’t fully aware of what his father went through until writing this book. He says these stories were often told with humor.
“They were just sort of told in this sort of this comedic sort of hint to it of like these men and women who had survived and were telling these survival tales with laughter,” Dennis Jr. says. “And it wasn’t until I talked to dad … that I learned that these were really sometimes gruesome, always dangerous stories that involved a lot of damage.”
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